Shadows of the Future
by DislicksicPotatoe
Summary: A world of torment lay in the future for all mutant kind unless a group of time triviling teenagers can complete their mission. Keep Proffessor X alive.
1. Preface

"Are you insane

"Are you insane?" Rita hissed at her friend. Her eyes flashed as she stared the other girl down. "Beast said those time-pods might not work!"

The frizzy-haired blonde held up her hands in self-defense. "Hey, he only said they _might_ not work."

Harry and Meggie were on Rita's side, which was pretty scary. Harry and Rita _never_ agreed on _anything_.

"Amber," said Meggie, "if we use your idea, we could destroy the space-time continuum, possibly even ourselves. If we don't, however-"

"I'll never see my dad again," said Amber coldly.

Meggie bit her lip. Amber's father had been killed when she was 8, and Amber and her mother hadn't fully recovered from it.

"So, for me at least, it's a lose-lose. Alter the timeline and talk to my dad again, or miss him forever and save this crappy era." Amber kicked a random rock. "Not that there's much to save," she added angrily.

Her hair stood on end as she used her powers and a bolt of lightning escaped her wimpy body. She came back sparking slightly, but much calmer.

"Feeling better?" Rita asked.

"Much," said Amber.

Kevin, Amber's on-off boyfriend and Meggie's younger brother, jumped up. "I'll go with Thunderbird," he said, using her X-Men name. "She can't do it alone."

Meggie rolled her eyes. Kevin was always ready to take part in Amber's idiotic schemes, even if it was during their third break-up that month.

"And I'm coming too," said a fourth girl, Crystal. She finished polishing her glasses and put them back on. The left lens was cracked, and Crystal herself had a cut lip and several bruises because of anti-mutant violence. "Amber's my best friend, practically my sister. No offense to you," she said to her twin.

Harry spoke for the first time, and his voice had a definite southern accent. "Sorry, Crys, but did you take a few too many hits to the head? A stupid idea is a stupid idea. Suppose Lily or Kinsey ceases to exist? If Kinsey disappears, Mom an' Dad will be ticked. An' let's not forget that Lily's an only child."

He would have said more, but Meggie stopped him.

"Speaking of Lily, she's waking up," she whispered, pointing to one of the two small children.

"What are you talking about?" Lily asked, blinking sleepily.

"Nothing that you should worry about," said Joy, Crystal's twin, who was much less beaten up than her sister. "Go back to sleep."

Lily nodded, but Amber stopped her.

"When she wakes up," she said, "can you tell my mom that we had to go somewhere? Just don't tell her where."

Lily was wide awake and listening now. Everyone had always said that Lily knew more than most kids her age, and with loudmouthed informers like Crystal, who couldn't keep a secret unless lives depended on it or someone would get mentally scarred, it was no wonder.

"Tell her that we've gone on a mission, only kids that have powers allowed," Amber added quickly, as Lily's eyes lit up like she wanted to come along. The 6-year-old huffed, but listened carefully to her instructions.

"And not until we're gone," Rita finished. She had long since changed her mind about this and decided to come with her friends.

Meggie, Harry, and Joy all seemed to be having some sort of mental conversation.

"We'll come, too," said Meggie.

"None of you can stay outta trouble for more than a day at a time," Harry continued. "I reckon y'all need a few babysitters."

"They're right," said Joy. "This is a stupid plan, but if stupidity is a disease, than I just caught it."

Kevin took Amber's hand. "So, we're leaving?"

Amber nodded. "Right now. You know the adults will try to stop us until Beast is positive those pods work. The sooner we leave, the better."

"Let's hope we don't blow up first," said Harry, who usually thought in the negative zone.

Rita snorted. "There's a comforting thought," she said sarcastically as she followed Amber and Meggie to the place where the pods were hidden.


	2. Chapter 1: Kids of the future

_Author's Note__: I am sorry that I have other unfinished stories but my sis and I are writing this together. Please, please, please don't flame. It will get more interesting._

_Chapter 1: The Kids of Tomorrow_

"_Scott," Jean said in an annoyed tone, "tell him there is no such thing as pod-people!" She pointed a finger at the blue teenager beside her._

"_No such thing as what?" Scott asked, looking down on his new wife, confused._

_Some people would call Scott and Jean insane for getting married at nineteen, but they were legal and in love. Even the Professor thought them crazy, though he had never said so out loud. Jean knew, though. The downside of being a mind-reader: hearing the thoughts of another mind-reader…_

"_POD-PEOPLE!" Jean shouted so loud the Professor, sitting in the next room, almost jumped out of his wheelchair._

"_I think we should limit Kurt's viewing of alien movies," said Scott._

"_Thank you!" said Jean, giving him a hug._

"_Scott really believes me," Kurt said, grinning. "He just doesn't vant to say so in front of you." With a loud BAMF, he vanished. No telling where he went, but it didn't matter. Jean would find him._

"_What was Kurt's theory?" Beast asked, looking through his telescope(don't ask me how he got it)._

"_Pod-people_," Jean said, tired of repeating herself.

"Really? There seems to be a large, circular spacecraft heading straight for the Institute."

Seconds later, there was a loud crack and a scream from Kitty.

"Pod-people!" Kurt cried, BAMFing into the kitchen, grabbing Jean, and teleporting her outside. "They've got Kitty!"

Scott ran out, closely followed by the professor, with Beast and the rest of the X-Men right behind him. Except for the newest member, Gambit. He was still asleep. But we'll get to him later.

"I'm not going near it ," said Jean, remembering 'the caldron' as she returned to Scott's side. He put a protective arm around her as the thing started opening.

"It's hatching!"

"KURT!"

"Rita, you're on my foot!" a voice complained.

"I don't have much space, either!" the one called Rita shot back.

"We come in peace!" said a boy, jumping out of the thing and stayed in the the air for a remarkably long time before landing right on his face. The boy seemed perfectly human, but then again…

There was a growl as another boy - again, appearing human - climbed out. Once he was safe, he helped out a girl with long, bright red hair. Once she was on the grass, Jean could see how tall the boy actually was.

"Holy freaking crap!" Jean said, awed. "He's almost as tall as you!" she continued, looking up at her husband.

"I need to get out!" a voice cried.

There was a quiet snapping sound. "You didn't need to do that! They were broken enough as it was!"

Two girls fell out at the exact same moment, landing, like the first boy had, on their faces.

"Really," said yet another girl, jumping out of the giant spacecraft and landing lightly on her feet, "if I knew this was how we were going to act, I never would have suggested it."

"Yes, you would've," the first boy retorted. She made a face at him.

"Have you noticed that they were staring at us?" the redhead asked her tall friend. He nodded. "Um, we come in peace," she offered, doing the "Vulcan Hand Gesture." The boy shook his head. "Oh, sorry." She held up two fingers. "We come in peace," she repeated, then turned to her friends. "Anyone want to take over?"

"I will!" the first boy shouted.

"Anyone else?"

The Professor came forward. "Where are you from?" he asked calmly.

"We're from Bayville," said another girl, climbing out of the pod and giving him a "Duh!" look.

"Rita, don't confuse him," the redhead scolded her. She took a deep breath, deciding that she had better be the one to tell them. "We're from the future of Bayville. And you know what's even weirder? Um, we're you're future kids! Man, that sounded corny and cliche. But it's true, anyway."

"If you're the X-Men's kids," said the Professor, who alone stood(if you'll forgive the expression) unfazed by the news, "can you at least give us some basic information about yourselves?"

"Like…"

"Your name, age, and the names of your parents."

"We can only tell you the name of one parent," said the redhead. "Otherwise, something might go horribly wrong and one of us might not exist. Anyway, I've done enough talking. Let's go youngest to oldest." So saying, she pushed Rita forward.

Rita was an average-sized girl with brown hair, hazel eyes, and a scowl as she stared at the redhead. But, turning to the X-Men, she smiled and ran straight up to the professor.

"Nice to see ya, Chuck!" she said, bouncing as though she'd had too much caffeine.

"I like her!" Jean shouted. The Professor rolled his eyes.

"I'm Rita, I'm fourteen, and you guys know my father as Wolverine."

Scott's face was turning red, as though holding in laughter. Jean snorted. "Some dad he'd be," she laughed. Logan growled.

"Your turn!" Rita said, pushing the girl with broken glasses forward.

"What happened to her?" Kitty gasped.

"To start the story, I'm Nightcrawler's future daughter. Um, your turn!" she said, hiding behind a girl who was probably her twin.

"I'm Joy, Crystal's twin, and we're fourteen. Now… you're next!"

Another girl stepped forward. Her silver-blond hair was frizzed and tangled. She was dark-skinned and normal height, and kept glancing around the crowd.

"I'm Amber, I'm fourteen, and I think you call my mother 'Storm.' The whole time-travel thing was my idea. But this is a time for introductions." She turned to the boy standing next to her: the one who had fallen on his face. "Kevin?"

Kevin hardly waited until Amber said his name. He was like Alien Force Ben Tennyson on crack. "Kevin, fourteen, Jean!"

Jean blinked a few times. "OK…um, they all end in N." She laughed like a lunatic.

Scott looked down at his wife. "What?"

"Never mind," she said, a bit too quickly. "Next person!"

It was the redhead's turn to talk…again. She was much shorter than her friend, and she had bright, shining brown eyes. "I'm Meggie, I'm sixteen, and I am, unfortunately, his sister." She pointed at Kevin.

Jean asked, "Is he like that all the time, or did we catch him on a bad day?"

Meggie sighed. "This is a good day for Kevin." Both Scott and Jean winced as she turned to the tall boy. "I'm not gonna do it."

There was silence.

"What's your name?" the Professor asked.

"Harry," was the Southern-accented response. Harry was tall(we've told you this before) with "Fourth-Movie Harry Potter" style hair, though there was a single white stripe in the front. He was dressed completely in black, even his boots and gloves.

They waited for more. They waited in vain. "How old are you."

"Sixteen."

Again they waited, and again in vain. "The name of one of your parents?" Xavier prodded.

"Rogue."

Rogue blinked. "You adopted?" she asked him.

"Harry, don't you dare. That's very rude." Meggie was glaring at him.

"Mind-reader," said the Professor.

"And I'm pretty good at it, considering you were dead most of my life…wait, did I spoil something?"

Jean gasped. "Chuckie can't die!" she screamed.

Wolverine growled. "I don't believe any of this bullshit."

Jean thwacked him on the back of the head. "Not in front of the kids!"

Storm looked just about ready to pass out from shock. "Maybe we _should_ get the story."

"Damn right," said Jean.

"Not in front of the kids!" Scott said in mock anger, grinning down at her. Jean stuck her tongue out like a five-year-old would. Scott laughed. "Sorry, love. You set yourself up for that one."

***

All the X-Men were sitting in the large living room in various positions. Gambit had been woken rather rudely by Jubilee, who had launched fireworks off by his ear, causing him to fall off the bed.

A lot of people had wanted the couch, and so, for lack of room, Jean was sitting on top of Scott. All eyes were on Amber, since she seemed willing to talk.

"Like I said, this whole thing was my idea. You see, in our time, all mutants live on the streets or, if their powers haven't manifested or they could pass for human, in Mutant Protection, something Professor X, my father, and a few of the X-Men started. When I was 8, my father was killed by an evil mutant who was desperate to force the normal humans out of power, probably for sharing the professor's views on how mutants should be hidden, able to lead normal lives. His last words, 'Charles Xavier will live,' didn't come true. That murdering mutant killed the professor, too." Everyone noticed how her voice got caught when she spoke of her father. Kevin took her hand again, and she continued. "My powers manifested when I was 11: I could release electric charges, and I was immune to shocks. Beast started inventing those time-pods, and I got this redonkulous idea that we can save our time, my father, the professor, and all of mutantkind."

"That's so sad," said Jean.

The Professor didn't seem to be surprised about his death. "Amber," he said calmly, "have you thought about the consequences of your actions? Suppose by doing this, you bring about the horrible life that you are desperate to escape?"

"Suppose we prevent it," she said, mirroring his calmness.

Crystal explained her life, and why she was hurt so badly. "My powers are genetic hand-me-downs," she said. "There's no other way to describe it. Like my father, I can teleport. Well, in the future, it's a known fact that it's the males that pass on the mutant gene, so when Dad's image inducer failed, our whole family was chased out. No one died, and the rest of them were smart enough to stay hidden but...I've always been the night owl, last to bed, last one up. Well, yesterday...I mean, the day before we left, a bunch of mutant-haters found me outside, and they…" she indicated her broken glasses, then lightly touched her split lip. "Other than the bruises and cuts, and the fact that I could only see clearly with one eye, I was fine, but if Gambit hadn't chased them off and dragged me back to the place we were all hidden…"

Even though the story was sad, Gambit couldn't stop a small smile. So, he had lived.

"Don't smirk," said Crystal. "You've got a sad story, too. You're the reason your kid was practically raised on the streets."

Rogue was looking at Harry now, but he was leaning against a wall, suddenly looking emo.

"Not up to sharin', boy?"

"Harry's not much of a talker," Meggie said, walking over to Harry's side, "he's more of a…. hitter." She put a hand on his shoulder and he flinched. "Sorry."

"What happened to him?" Rouge asked, concerned.

Harry strode out of the room to nowhere in particular. Meggie sighed, " He heals somewhat fast, but he still fells quite a bit of pain. There were people, anti mutant people, after me. Harry took the beating meant for me on more than one occasion." She looked out at the future parents, turned, and ran after Harry, calling his name as she ran.

Their was silence in the room. All were thinking about what they had been told of the future.

"Well," Jean said, standing up, "we better get you guys rooms."

"Rooms?" Xavier asked confused.

"Well, we're not going to throw them out."

"I thought we'd send them home," the Professor suggested.

"They came to help," said Jean, "Let them help."

"I don't normally say this about stuff like this-" Scott started to say.

"Because you're a guy and always insist you're right." Jean muttered.

Scott continued as if he had not heard her, "But Jean has a point."

"Alright, Jean, you show them to their rooms. But, before you do, I want to know If they have X-Men names."

"I found him!" Meggie declared, dragging Harry into the room.

"Harry," Xavier started, attempting tot get Harry to talk, "What's your X-Men name?"

Harry smiled, "Vampyr."

"Why?"

Harry started pulling off his glove but Meggie slapped upside the head . "Do you always have to be such a pain in the ass?" She asked. "Not funny." she added.

"And what do they call you?"

"Psycho." She replied . Harry snorted. "Hey, I like it!"

The professor turned to Kevin, "and yours?"

"Flame-Thrower." He replied, hyper as ever.

"Oh, oh!!" one of the twins cried, "Me next!! I'm Phantom."

"Phantom," the professor seemed confused, "Why?"

"Now you see me here," there was a ping and a flash of light, " now I'm over here."

The other twin spoke up, "I'm just Joy. Nothing special."

Rita stepped forward, "I'm like Joy, nothing special, Just Rita."

"Amber." The professor looked at her pointedly.

"I'm Thunderbird. I can shock people…like a human Pikachu, I guess."

"Very well. Jean, find them rooms."

Jean smiled, "O.k. Chucky."

He rolled his eyes as Jean walked off, the future kids right behind her.

*********************************************************

It grew dark out and the institute, one by one, fell asleep. Meggie padded softly down the hallway, carefully making her way down to the room that now belonged to Harry and her brother. She opened the door slowly, being sure not to wake them. A lamp was on and Harry was sitting on his bed reading an incredibly thick book. "Harry," she whispered stepping into the room and sitting on his bed.

"Hey, Meggs," he seemed somewhat confused.

"Harry, things are getting better, back in our time. I can feel it." she smiled a dazzling smile only she could do.

"Why did you need to tell me this. It's late Meggs."

" I figured you would still be awake," she replied, then added, "Plus, if I forget you can remind me. Your good at that." She yawned. "Well, I'm gonna go to sleep. 'Night." and with that, she left.


	3. Chapter 2: Back to the Future

**Author's note: **Now, instead of focusing on the past, it is time to focus on the future! Every so often I will give you, the readers a glimpse into the future from which the future kids came. So, that being said, enjoy!

_**Chapter 2:**_

**Back to the Future**

"They what?!" Storm yelled as the young girl cringed away. She had just told them what had happened to the other children, and Storm, frankly, was _**not**_ happy.

"Storm," Scott said in a stern voice, "calm down. There was nothing she could have done to stop them."

"Don't you dare tell me what to do Summers!"

"Ororo, please, calm down." Scott repeated. He knelt down to the little girl. "When did they leave?" he asked kindly.

"About 3 hours ago." she replied, still shaky from Storm's outburst.

"Beast," Jean asked turning to her friend, "how do these time pods work."

"Well," Beast started, "if my theories are correct, they should bend the time stream around them in such a way as to allow the user to go to the time of their choice."

"Theories," Scott asked, concerned.

"Yes, well I never had a chance to- well- test them."

"Great," Storm yelled, "our kids are God knows where, not to mention they don't even know how to work the damn thing! This screams of Amber!" She sank to her knees and put her face in her hands.

Scott glanced at her then turned to Beast, "we better get to work on a new one. It could take some time." Scott said calmly.

"Damn you!" Storm yelled taking her hands away from her tearstained face and rising to her feet, "Damn you Summers! You don't even care!"

"Ororo," Jean said, attempting to stop another argument, "please-"

"Ororo, I do care," Scott said rising his voice for the first time since the professor's death. All previous arguments had been carried out in calm voices, on Scott's part that is. "This is the only way I can see to get them back! I'm not Charles! I can't think of everything, damn it! If you have a better idea than feel free to tell me!"

There was silence in the room. No one wanted to be involved in this argument. Storm finally stormed from the room, fresh tears of frustration running down her face. Scott stood there staring after her, clearly upset.

Jean walked up to him and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Ororo," she started, "she's just worried about the kids."

"I know," Scott replied, sighing. He hadn't wanted to blow up at Ororo like that. He didn't want to yell at anyone.

Jean looked up an him. "She's worried. So am I." she wrapped her arms around her husband's neck and buried her face in his shirt.

"They'll be alright, Jeanie," Scott said, stroking her hair soothingly, "I promise." Silently he hoped that was a promise he would be able to keep.


End file.
